SQL Format Function

SQL FORMAT() is an inbuilt function that is used for formatting a value with the specified format. The FORMAT() function is used with date/time values and number values. SQL FORMAT() function formats the value with the specified format (and an optional culture in SQL Server 2017). Use the FORMAT() function to format date/time values and number values.

SQL Format a value formatted with the specified format and optional culture. Use the FORMAT function for locale-aware formatting of date/time and number values as strings. For general data type conversions, use CAST or CONVERT.

Syntax

SELECT FORMAT (value, format, culture);

Parameters:

Value: Expression which is to be formatted.
Format: The pattern in which expression has to be formatted.
Culture: It is entirely optional; it specifies the culture.

See the following example.

DECLARE @d DATETIME = '28/10/2019';  
SELECT FORMAT (@d, 'd', 'en-US') AS 'US English Result',  
       FORMAT (@d, 'd', 'no') AS 'Norwegian Result',  
       FORMAT (@d, 'd', 'zu') AS 'Zulu Result',
       FORMAT ( @d, 'd', 'en-gb' ) AS 'Great Britain English Result',
       FORMAT ( @d, 'd', 'de-de' ) AS 'German Result',  
       FORMAT ( @d, 'd', 'zh-cn' ) AS 'Simplified Chinese (PRC) Result';

See the output.

Example 2:

See the following code.

DECLARE @d DATETIME = '10/28/2019';  
SELECT FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'en-US' ) AS 'US English Result'  
      ,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'en-gb' ) AS 'Great Britain English Result'  
      ,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'de-de' ) AS 'German Result'  
      ,FORMAT ( @d, 'D', 'zh-cn' ) AS 'Chinese (Simplified PRC) Result';

See the output.

Let’s see the custom format types.

DECLARE @d DATETIME = GETDATE();  
SELECT FORMAT( @d, 'dd/MM/yyyy', 'en-US' ) AS 'DateTime Result'  
       ,FORMAT(123456789,'###-##-####') AS 'Custom Number Result';

See the output.

#SQL Format Date Example

In this example, we first declared a Datetime variable and assigned GETDATE() to it. Here, we are going to use the Format function to return the date in different formats.

See the following code example.

DECLARE @Vardate DATETIME = GETDATE() 
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'd', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 1',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'D', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 2'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'f', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 3',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'F', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 4'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'g', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 5',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'G', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 6'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'm', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 7',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'M', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 8'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'O', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 9',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'R', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 10'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 's', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 11', FORMAT(@Vardate, 'S', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 12'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 't', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 13', FORMAT(@Vardate, 'T', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 14'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'u', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 15', FORMAT(@Vardate, 'U', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 16'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'Y', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 17'

See the output.

#SQL Format Date using Culture

In this example, we are going to use the format function third argument culture.

By this, you can display the month name, or day name in the native language — something like, Day name in J Hindi, Russian, Korean, Japanese, Chineses, etc.

See the following query.

DECLARE @Vardate DATETIME = GETDATE() 
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'dd', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 1',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'dddd', 'hi-IN' ) AS 'Result 2'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'd', 'de-DE' ) AS 'Result 3',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'dddd', 'ru-RU' ) AS 'Result 4'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'M', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 5',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'MMMM', 'hi-IN' ) AS 'Result 6'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'MM', 'de-DE' ) AS 'Result 7',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'MMMM', 'ru-RU' ) AS 'Result 8'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'yy', 'en-US' ) AS 'Result 9',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'y', 'hi-IN' ) AS 'Result 10'
SELECT FORMAT(@Vardate, 'yyyy', 'de-DE' ) AS 'Result 11',  FORMAT(@Vardate, 'y', 'ru-RU' ) AS 'Result 12'

See the output.

#SQL Server Format Currency using Culture

In this example, we are going to format the Currency values based on the specified culture.

DECLARE @Sales INT = 1111 
SELECT FORMAT(@Sales, 'c', 'en-US' ) AS 'USA Currency'
SELECT FORMAT(@Sales, 'c', 'ru-RU' ) AS 'Russian Currency'
SELECT FORMAT(@Sales, 'c', 'hi-IN' ) AS 'Indian Currency'
SELECT FORMAT(@Sales, 'c', 'de-DE' ) AS 'Indian Currency'

See the output.

Finally, How To Format Function In SQL Server Tutorial is over.

SQL Format Function | How To Format Function In SQL Server